At the heart of South Africa’s economic transformation and prosperity lies a complicated disconnect: Corporate organisations need to adhere to stringent global standards, while simultaneously providing opportunities to local businesses to grow and thrive. And capable SMEs struggle to break into corporate supply chains.
Please join us for a discussion on the issues, led by a report which draws on research gathered from organisations on all sides of the divide.
Date: 9 October 2026 Time: 10am to 1pm including lunch Venue: Protea Fire & Ice Hotel, Melrose Arch
Please register by completing the short form below
X Spark is a software development and business intelligence company that delivers innovative technology solutions for organisations across industries. Founded in 2007, X Spark develops user focused systems while supporting skills growth in previously disadvantaged communities.
Three Key Impacts:
Marketing and Sales: Through the Aurik process, XSpark sharpened its positioning and reconnected with its core strengths. This shift enabled the business to focus on value driven client engagements that supported strong commercial traction. Their renewed clarity helped unlock significant growth in revenue and profit, building confidence in their direction and deepening market trust.
Operations and Assets: XSpark strengthened its operational backbone through disciplined system building. The business achieved ISO 27001 certification, a major step in demonstrating world class standards. They also secured funding support for key assets and successfully purchased their own premises, giving the business a professional home with room to grow and a clear symbol of the Asset of Value they are building.
Team: As part of their growth journey, the founders streamlined their team and realigned roles to support long term scalability. They built a structure that balances delivery with ongoing innovation, while cultivating a positive, purpose driven culture. The new premises, enhanced systems and clearer team responsibilities contributed to a mindset shift that strengthened their leadership confidence.
RCPM Industries is an established civil and mining contracting company operating nationally across South Africa. The company is committed to becoming a world class firm that delivers reliable support and high quality services to its clients.
Three Key Impacts:
Marketing and Sales: Reabetswedintlha doubled their number of leads and invested more in marketing campaigns. This resulted in a 50 percent increase in sales engagements and an improvement in client concentration, reducing reliance on a few major clients. Their turnover grew by 9.06 percent during the programme.
Operations and Capacity: The business maintained full operational capacity and achieved a 0 percent failure rate on quality measures. They are working on expanding into primary mining services and have ongoing engagements with major equipment suppliers. They have also developed stronger cost forecasting per site to improve profitability management.
Team: The team grew through the addition of new operators, and roles and responsibilities were clearly defined, especially for operations and HR functions. They maintained strong HR structures, documented processes and enhanced accountability. A new director has been fully onboarded with clear duties.
RCPM: Reabetswedintlha Consultancy and Project Management
Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD), a pillar of the Black Economic Empowerment Codes in South Africa, was designed to build supplier-grade, black-owned SMEs and to widen their access to South Africa’s corporate supply chains.
The spend is substantial, exceeding R150 billion over the past five years, but too much of it still prioritises activity over results. Money moves, workshops are counted, vendors are registered, yet the real markers of progress – capability, contracts, repeat spend and retention – remain patchily measured and weakly incentivised.
This report argues for a simple pivot: keep verification rigorous but point it squarely at outcomes that matter to firms and to the economy.
Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD), a pillar of the Black Economic Empowerment Codes in South Africa, was designed to build supplier-grade, black-owned SMEs and to widen their access to South Africa’s corporate supply chains.
The spend is substantial, exceeding R150 billion over the past five years, but too much of it still prioritises activity over results. Money moves, workshops are counted, vendors are registered, yet the real markers of progress – capability, contracts, repeat spend and retention – remain patchily measured and weakly incentivised.
This report argues for a simple pivot: keep verification rigorous but point it squarely at outcomes that matter to firms and to the economy.
Ligalelo Trading is a construction and plant hire company operating from their base in Mbombela, servicing construction and civils projects.
Three Key Impacts:
Marketing & Sales: They made a smart plan to grow their business. Now, instead of speaking to only 5 clients a month, they talk to more than 30. This helped them grow their number of regular customers by 50%.
Machines & Equipment: They started with only 4 big machines. Now they have 11. Because of this, they had to move to a new, bigger site that is well located in town – which also helps them get noticed by more people.
Team: Nathi embraced the process of defining a role, and then training employees to deliver that role. He included his team in the Aurik process to ensure rapid buy-in and adoption of the systems and processes designed. This has enabled rapid staff growth from 3 to 13.
Founded and led by Jodie Naidoo,DEZINA PAK supplies high-quality, eco-friendly, biodegradable food packaging to the catering and hospitality industries.
Three Key Impacts:
Scale & growth: Jodie successfully self-funded the import of a full container of stock which offered greater range to her clients, reduced cost and necessitated a new warehouse and more staff to manage the increased workload
Delegation: The implementation of an inventory management system, together with an organisational structure with clear roles led to the hire of two new employees to release Jodie’s time to focus on strategy
Profitability: Access to bulk stock reduced cost and increased capacity, allowing Dezina to service more clients. Improved systems operated by a purposeful team have improved efficiencies, all contributing to profit increase
